Samsung Chromebook 2 Series Takes Cues from the Galaxy Note 3

Samsung has just announced a brand-new set of Chromebooks. The Chromebook 2 series will feature 11.6” and 13.3” Chromebooks with some pretty impressive specs, including a 1080p display on the larger one.

With the new series, Samsung is trying to secure their lead in the United States Chromebook game, and it looks like they’re doing a pretty good job of it. They’re powered by Samsung’s own Exynos 5 Octa processors, which are energy-efficient and help make the 8.5-hour battery life possible (up to eight hours on the smaller 11.6” model). Both will have 4 GB of RAM and 16 GB of e.MMc storage, backed up by the usual haul of free Google Drive cloud storage offered with Chromebooks. The big draw is the 1920 x 1080 display on the 13.3” Chromebook, which is the first 1080p display on a Chromebook with the notable exception of Google’s own Chromebook Pixel. It’s certainly the first time a 1080p display has been made available on a low-cost Chromebook. The 11.6” Chromebook, on the other hand, sticks with a 1366 x 768 display.

The new Chromebooks are very light – roughly 2.5 pounds for the 11.6” model, and a bit over three pounds for the 13.3” model – and share the same plastic backing designed to resemble leather stitching that the Galaxy Note 3 has. It makes the new Chromebooks look very sleek and fashionable – probably part of Samsung’s efforts to make the Chromebooks seem less cheap.

Speaking of cheap, these Chromebooks remain low-cost notebook alternatives, although the price has crept up ever so slightly, making these new Chromebooks a little less practical for mass use in education. The 11.6” model (in black or white) will cost $320 and the 13.3” model (in gray) will cost $400 when both come out this April.